


Blinded by love

by TheSwahn



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-10
Updated: 2014-04-10
Packaged: 2018-01-18 21:09:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,553
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1442974
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSwahn/pseuds/TheSwahn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jean Kirschtein is a busy man who lives in a busy city. When he one day is fired, he bumped into a blind man called Marco, who works his way into his life and changes his views on everything.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Blinded by love

**Author's Note:**

> This is just a short story that's going to be maybe three + chapters
> 
> I also don't know so much about how it is with support from the state for disabled people in America, so I hope this isn't too far from accurate. 
> 
> I would apreciate any tips!

Love is such a weird concept. You never know who you might fall in love with, or when or where. Sometimes you see it coming, maybe it’s someone you’ve known for a long time that you slowly start to develop romantic feelings for, sometimes it’s love at first sight strong and passionate, but might burn out quickly and some rare times, love lasts. No matter what happens, you can’t forget that person and you love them so much your whole body aches and you know that you can never leave them, even if they leave you physically. But if you’re lucky… they love you back just as much.  
__________________________________________________________________________________________________

Everything had gone wrong for Jean that day. First he had overslept, then missed the subway by seconds, so he had to take the next one and got late to work, and then he was fucking fired on top of it all. They didn’t have a good reason, just that they had to “cut down on employees” fucking bullshit. He couldn’t remember the last time he had been this pissed as he stomped down the sidewalk from his former workplace. No one wanted to deal with Jean Kirschtein when he was this pissed, knowingly or not. He bumped right into people who didn’t have the sense to move out of his way, and though angry at first, most scrambled out of the way when he glared at them with lightning bolts practically coming out of his eyes. Suddenly he slammed into someone who had stood completely still in the middle of the sidewalk not even caring about moving for other people. 

“Hey watch it, jackass! Are you fucking-“

“Blind?” The guy finished for him and Jean froze as he saw his cane and sunglasses covering his eyes. A sting of guilt hit him and he frowned, biting his lower lip. 

“Oh.. sorry man, I’ve just had a really bad day.” He apologized, because goddamn even if it was the worst day of his life, it just wasn’t right to just slam into a blind person. But the man just laughed. 

“That’s alright.” He said and flashed the nicest smile he had ever seen and for a split second, he forgot what he why he was angry, but then he remembered and turned back to scowling. 

“Hey, do you mind helping me over the road here? I can’t really tell if it’s red or green and I’ve been standing here for ages, trying to listen to the cars, but there’s a lot of traffic today.” He suddenly asked out of the blue and Jean looked to his sides to make sure he was the one he was talking to. Really? He really had to deal with this right now? All he wanted to do was to get home. Although he supposed he kind of owed him a favor. Besides, the guy was so damn sweet, it was impossible to turn him down, so he sighed and held out his arm. 

“Sure. Here, take my arm.” He said and he did so. Waiting till the light turned green, Jean walked him over the road, careful not to go too fast so they would trip or something, and let go on the other side. 

“Thanks.” He said with that smile again and then held out his hand. “I’m Marco, by the way.”  
Jean hesitated for a second, but took his hand. 

“Uh.. Jean.” 

“Oh, that’s a beautiful name! It sounds… French?” He said enthusiastically and again Jean was a little weirded out by his randomness. 

“Uh.. yeah. My mom lived in France half her life, so..” The guy nodded, as if completely understanding what he meant and smiled yet again. What was it about this Marco guy that made him so positive? Everyone in this city were negative. Everyone just goes about their business, bumping into people in the crowded streets and if you try to say hi to someone, they’ll just scowl angrily at you. But not this guy. He was happy and cheerful even if someone walked right into him and almost accused him for it, which made Jean feel a little bad. It wasn’t his fault that he had the shittiest day ever. 

“Look, again, I’m really sorry about crashing into you.” He said.

Marco just shrugged his shoulders. “It’s alright, honestly.” 

“Let me make it up to you somehow..” Jean offered and Marco chuckled lightly. 

“What did you have in mind?” 

Jean thought about it for a second. Just something to show that he wasn’t a complete ass. 

“I don’t know.. Let me buy you lunch or something?” 

Marco smiled and then nodded. “That’d be great! My favorite café is actually just down the road here.” 

How would you know? Jean wanted to ask, but refrained from it. How could he even know what part of the city he was in? He didn’t really know what to say next, so he ended up just following Marco as he headed for the café. He walked quietly by his side, glancing sideways at him as he showed the way. As he watched him and the sunshine shone on his light skin, he noticed the freckles that spread out over his nose and cheeks and he vaguely wondered if he had freckles on the rest of his body as well. The sunshine danced over his dark brown hair, parted in the middle and with some strings hanging over his forehead. He suddenly got really curious to what his eyes looked like and wondered if he always used the shades or just sometimes. Jean’s eyes drifted to his lips, pink and soft looking and he noticed that he was counting his steps. Damn. He was actually really good looking…

“Here we are.” Marco suddenly popped his bubble of daydreaming as he had stopped in front of a café, tapping a flowerpot with his cane. 

“What? Oh, right.” Jean said clumsy and thanked God that he couldn’t see him blush. 

As they went inside the café, Marco waved in the general direction of the register and said in a friendly voice: “Hi Petra!”  
A rather cute, small girl with shoulder length red hair looked up and smiled at them. 

“Oh hi, Marco! Your regular table is free, so go right ahead.” 

“Thanks.” Marco said and as he found the table with his hand, fairly close to the door and by a window, he took a seat. Jean sat down in the seat on the opposite side, still not really sure what to do or say and the girl came over with menus for them. He tried not to question how Marco would read the menu. 

“So uh… Do you come here a lot then?” He asked awkwardly. Smalltalk was never really his thing. 

“Yeah, almost every day.” 

Jean nodded absentmindedly as he looked around. The place was actually pretty cozy, with white walls decorated with flowers here and there and on one wall, there were painted a bunch of famous quotes from musicians and writers and Gandhi. It was pretty quiet too, not many people, with jazz music playing quietly through the place, so he could see why Marco might prefer it to a crowded Starbucks or whatever. 

“What do you normally do here?” He asked stupidly, again trying to make small talk. 

“Well, I eat lunch and chat with people or just relax. Sometimes I read..” 

“How?” He blurted out and regretted it immediately, but Marco just laughed. 

“Blind writing, silly!” He explained, waving his hand to indicate he read with his fingers. 

“Right, of course! Wait how are you able to read the menu?” He audibly smacked his forehead. “I’m sorry man. You’re actually the first ever blind person I’ve met.” 

Marco just laughed that angelic musical laugh again, a bit louder this time, clearly amused by Jean’s awkwardness. 

“That’s alright.” He assured. “Well, I pretty much have the menu memorized, but sometimes they read it out to me, if they have anything new. I usually order the same thing anyway. Any other questions?” 

Jean shook his head. “Uh.. no.” He actually had a bunch of questions, but he didn’t want to be rude. Luckily, Petra arrived again with a notepad in hand and saved Jean from his awkwardness. 

“Are you guys ready?” She asked and he remembered that he had offered to pay for lunch. 

“Oh right.. Marco?” He turned to the other. 

“Just the regular for me, please.” The girl nodded and scribbled in her notepad. 

“And for your date?” 

Jean almost fell out of his chair as he jumped.

“What? No no, I’m not… We’re not…” He stuttered and Marco laughed. 

“It’s not a date.” He explained to Petra and she blushed slightly. 

“Oh right, sorry!” 

Jean turned bright red and was tempted to run out of there, he was so embarrassed, but he just hid his face in his hands and mumbled:  
“Just a coffee, for me.” 

She nodded and disappeared. After an unbearably long silence, Marco spoke:

“Unless you want it to be.” 

“What?” Jean muttered as he looked up.

“A date.” 

And he turned red all over again, trying to look anywhere but at him, even though he knew he couldn’t see him and ended up staring in the table. 

“Oh I uh… I hadn’t really thought about it.. I mean I didn’t know if…” He stuttered and Marco chuckled. 

“Relax, I’m just teasing you.” 

“Oh. Right.. Yeah, of course.” 

At least that saved him from the awkwardness of asking if he was gay. Not long after, their food arrived, or rather, Marco’s food and Jean’s coffee. He had a pasta salad with iced tea, which actually looked pretty good. The coffee was pretty ok too, though it was just plain black, so nothing special. 

“So what made your mood so bad today?” Marco suddenly asked out of the blue. 

“Oh uh.. Well everything actually. First I overslept, then missed the subway and when I finally got to work, I got fucking fired.” Jean grumbled and stared down in his coffee. He didn’t really know why he was telling all this to someone he had just met, but then again, why not? 

“Oh man, that sucks.. Did they say why?” Marco said, furrowing his eyebrows, looking actually sympathetic. 

“Yeah, something about “cutting down on workers” cause business had been bad lately. Fucking bullshit.” 

“I’m sorry.” Marco said and Jean looked up. 

“Don’t be. Was probably gonna quit anyway, the boss was a fucking tyrant. Fucking Shadis…” He muttered his former boss’ name under his breath, but Jean felt like the more he talked about it, the more pissed he got, so he changed the subject. 

“Anyway, what do you do?” 

Marco suddenly turned his head to the side, and he could’ve sworn his cheeks were a slightly deeper shade of pink. Was he embarrassed? 

“I’m a musician actually. Well, I mean, I get some support from the states, but I do some gigs.” That was a little surprising, but definitely caught his interest. 

“Really? What do you play?” 

“The piano.” 

“What! Isn’t it hard?” He couldn’t stop himself from asking, but Marco seemed to be fine with his slightly offensive outbursts by now. 

“Well, I’ve played for a long while, so not really. You don’t really have to see to play an instrument. Some would even argue it’s easier not to.. haven’t you ever noticed how some musicians close their eyes while they play?”  
Jean thought about it and remembered that actually yeah, most professional musicians would close their eyes in solos and stuff. And that was really impressive. 

“Wow..” He murmured. “I have got to hear you play sometime!” 

Marco smiled. “I’m actually playing here next week.” 

Jean immediately lit up, excited. “When? I’ll be there.” 

“Uh.. Friday at eight.” 

Jean took out his phone and typed in the date and time, just so he wouldn’t forget it. And as he looked up, he was a little puzzled to see Marco taking out his own phone. 

“While we’re at it.. Could I have your number?” He said and held out his phone for Jean to type it in.

“Of course.” He said, maybe a little too quickly, and took the phone. It looked like a really fancy one, with voice control that read out the numbers as he typed them in. He typed in his number and added a heart behind his name, just because he could and handed it back to Marco. He was dying to ask how he used it, but managed to keep quiet. It looked like he put Jean’s number on a speed dial and then put it back in his pocket. 

“What’s your number?” Jean asked and as Marco stated it, he typed it in and added a heart behind his name as well. He just couldn’t help it. 

“So Jean, what kind of music do you like?” 

Jean shrugged his shoulders. 

“I can listen to pretty much anything actually… Just not too heavy. But yeah, anything but country really.” 

Marco smiled like he was really amused by that. 

“Really?” He said. Oh God, please don’t let him be a country freak. 

“Oh yeah.” Was all he said and took a sip of his coffee. “What about you?” 

“Oh, I like all kind of music.” He stated as-a-matter-of-fact’ly. Jean found that kind of hard to believe. 

“Really?” He said. Marco just nodded. 

“Anything?” He nodded again. 

“Hip Hop?” Nod. “Death metal?” Another nod. “Lady gaga?” Now he laughed. 

“Hey, some of her songs are catchy, ok! Don’t judge.” 

Jean had to laugh with him. 

“No, but really though.. Something my father used to say was “I can listen to any music as long as it’s good music” meaning, I can like something in every genre, all depending on the song.” Jean nodded to himself. That actually made sense. 

“But I think my favorite music is classical. There are just so many different types of instruments that you don’t even notice if you don’t listen carefully, because they’re so harmonic together as a whole. And in great pieces, it’s like they create a story or a fairytale with just music and it’s incredible!”  
Jean had to smile as he listened to Marco. He was just too cute. 

They spent the rest of the day, talking about random stuff, like their interests and lives, but mostly music. It was fascinating to listen to Marco talk about music, because he seemed so passionate about it. And Jean had a feeling that he would defend his favorite bands and artists to the death, if someone insulted them.  
Eventually, it got late and the café was closing. The evening came creeping up on them and although Jean wanted nothing more than to just sit there and talk to him, they had to leave. 

“So.. I’ll see you later, I guess?” Jean said as they stood outside the café, about to go their own way. Marco nodded with a smile and said:

“I should hope so! It was nice meeting you, Jean.” 

“Yeah, you too.” Jean replied with a small smile and they left. 

That night, he could not get Marco off his mind and he lying in his bed, in his apratment, staring up at the ceiling, he eventually fell asleep thinking about his cute freckled face smiling warmly.


End file.
